An edible garden in Wellington, NZ

Busy day, and I wasn’t free to garden until 4.30. By that time the storm with severe gales and torrential rain had arrived, so I didn’t get much done.

Sprouting: Baxter’s Blue geranium. Took me a moment to realise it wasn’t a weed.

Budding: some of my tulips, and one or two of my strawberries, including “Lipstick”.

Planting: a few more potatoes I found in my seed box. Not quite sure what they are or where they came from. May be a Maori potato variety.

Strengthening: the asparagus windbreak. One of the bamboo stakes had already broken.

Picking: most of my daffodils. They usually last longer in the garden than a vase, but not in this sort of weather. So I salvaged them while I could. The photo is what they looked like at about 8 this morning, before the storm arrived.

Digging: my vegetable garden – the bit where root vegetables are going. “No dig” doesn’t work too well for root vegetables, especially when the garden was formerly lawn and is reasonably compacted.

Discovering: the largest earthworm I have ever seen. I stared in shock for a moment and checked I hadn’t inadvertently chopped off one of my fingers – I’m not kidding, it was that big – and then put the earth back over it. I didn’t dig that bit any more. I didn’t want to hurt it.

Planting: (right to left when standing on the deck, in rows!) “Inca Gold” oca, Desiree potato, Agria potato, parsnip (and radish) seed, pink fir potato, Touchon carrot seed, Chiogga (striped) beetroot seed, purple dragon carrot seed, (and then not in rows because it was all too neat for me) random carrots including Lubyana and a coloured mix, plus a few sugar beet out of curiosity.

Sowing: as well as the other seed, I scattered a few Flanders poppies over where the rows of potatoes are.

Netting: the entire area that I dug and planted today, with robust plastic mesh. I used to blame the cats for digging, but I realise now that it was the blackbirds. Of course, I was fair enough to blame the cats, as the blackbirds are only able to dig when the cats neglect their bird-scaring duties. Today a blackbird was trying to dig up my seeds and Faust was chasing a piece of pea straw nowhere near the blackbird. You just can’t get decent help thesedays.

Also planting: various Maori potato varieties in the corner garden that I don’t know what to do with.

Eating: silverbeet, celery, salad greens (lettuce, miner’s lettuce, chickweed mostly). I don’t have enough so I’m still buying vegetables and will probably be doing so for a couple more months at least.

Planting:Primula veris, Arisaema nepenthoides, A. ringens, Fragaria ‘Lipstick’ (a pink-flowered strawberry), white alpine strawberry, Geranium ‘Baxter’s Blue. Mostly ornamentals that will grow under my berry plants and make that garden a bit more interesting when the spring bulbs are gone, apart from the strawberries. The geranium is in a sunny spot by one of my apples. I also planted a second Fragaria ‘Lipstick’ in the blueberry garden, not sure how acid it will tolerate but I’ll know soon enough.

Repotting: more white alpine strawberries.

Budding: redcurrant and Albany Surprise. Also signs of leaves starting on one nectarine.

Spraying: copper oxychloride on my nectarines and grapes.

Wondering: what to do with the leftover spray mix, I didn’t use very much of it and don’t think it keeps.

Weeding: mostly buttercups today, but also some couch grass and a few other things.

Sowing: more mustard and blue lupin green manure, plus blue phacelia, meadowfoam, calendula and nemophila in some garden beds which I’m not quite ready to plant up yet. Partly so I have some pretty flowers, partly for the bees (or the bumblebees and random insects, because there are no honeybees), partly to eat (I like calendula petals in salad) and partly to have something to cover up the soil and save me having to buy more mulch.

Completing: all the edging and garden construction that I plan to do this year. There’s still a lot of work to do, but the structure is in place. I’ve still got one area that isn’t done, but it will remain largely in grass until next autumn or winter. I haven’t quite worked out what to do with that area.

Digging: weeds and rocks out of the garden I was edging.

Planting: boysenberry (Mapua), loganberry (Waimate). Loganberries are supposed to be a bit sour to eat fresh, but are meant to be good for cooking. My plan is to pick and freeze them, so I have something to use for baking in the winter.

Sowing: green manure plants, blue lupin, mustard and random wildflowers, in the newly weeded area where I finished the edging. I’m waiting for a Wiki Tu feijoa to go there, plus I’ve planted the boysenberry, but I’m really not sure what else to plant. The soil is really good there, and I think I may plant some of the potatoes there later.

Cutting: back the dead pitchers on my Saracennia pitcher plants and my rather straggly sage bush.

Repotting: my Sarracenia catesbaei. It had got so huge the pot wouldn’t even stand up. The only reason it was still upright was all the Sarracenia plants are crammed together in a tray. Potted in pure peat ( I think I potted the last ones in a mix of peat and pumice).

Watering: my mesclun seedlings, as it has been quite warm and sunny for three days. There was another frost on Friday morning though, but lighter than the one on Thursday morning.

Weeding: the couch grass is growing fast at the moment.

Budding: one of my Sarracenia plants and Neroli’s trillium. It hasn’t flowered for a while so I’m very happy to see a bud on it.

Noticed it was cold when I woke up this morning. Opened the curtains and saw a frost on my garden.

Observing: I haven’t actually done any gardening today, but I have a few observations, so I’m getting them down.

Germinating: mesclun mix. So far it is mostly only brassicas. They are always first.

Raining: not for the last few days, but there was 23 mm from Sunday afternoon until about Tuesday morning.

Sprouting: the comfrey is up.

Breaking: buds of Ebony, Ivory, Marcy and Waiau raspberries have broken, although some individual plants of Marcy and Waiau haven’t yet. No sign of Qualicon or Autumn Bliss (nor the red and white currants and Initial apple). Polka apple is swelling, while the blackcurrant and potted hazelnut are very close – should be open by the weekend.

Flowering: Both nectarines are in blossom. There are plenty of daffodils and other Narcissus, also Muscari, both types of Nemophila are flowering quite well, although the plants are still tiny. A few random flowers on my southern highbush blueberries. Oh, and I don’t think I mentioned the wild cineraria (Pericallis x hybrida) by the letterbox, but they have been flowering for at least two months. So far the ones I have are a particularly lurid purple with a white centre, great with the yellow daffs.

Bolting: one of my coloured beets. The others have picked up and are producing more now that it is warmer.

Eating: celery, silverbeet, parsley

Recording: frost report. I’m sorry this is probably incomprehensible to anyone but me so I’ve left it to last.

Berry garden at soil level: frost

Berry garden 15 cm above soil level: no frost (judged by whether or not daffodils that had fallen over a bit were frozen solid or not)

Vegetable garden: frost (it had the most)

Table on deck: frost

deck steps: frost

strawberry step: frost

> 1 m from south fence: frost (fascinating the effect that that fence has)

Raining: only about 3 mm this weekend, up until 5 today anyway, despite predictions of rain. A bit more now, so I’ll check the rain gauge again in the next few days.

Sorting: weeds from dirt. I’ve found that if I pile up the scraped off weedy layer and cover it for a few weeks, it becomes a bit looser (possibly worm activity) and I can separate most of the soil from the weed roots and put it back in the garden. Boring and it doesn’t look like I’ve done much when I’m finished.

Chitting: potatoes (Agria and Desiree), Inca gold oca (we call them yams here, but it’s such an ambiguous name I avoid it). Not sure how long to leave them, but I can see that the eyes are starting to sprout.

Budding: definite bud swell on Albany Surprise (grape) and Polka (apple). Both nectarines have some blossoms open. Ebony (raspberry) has past budbreak and there are a few twigs of Waiau (raspberry) that have too (I didn’t notice them before as they are largely buried in the mulch).